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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

I'm running Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon x64 and, for whatever reason, the Software Manager just stopped working. Clicking the icon in the Menu used to work, but no longer. Now, when I click it and enter the password, nothing happens.

When I enter the command manually in Terminal, it just goes back to prompt:

The gksu part always works. The password prompt always pops up, but mintinstall doesn't run. It only runs if the "su" command is issued seperately. Can anyone tell me why this stopped working from the Menu?

Purging and reinstalling mintinstall didn't fix it, but it helped me figure out the problem. I noticed SUDO is not working either. The only way I could use apt is to become root using SU. This reminded me of a role change I had made for this user a while back. I don't remember why I did this, but I changed this user account to "Standard" some time ago. Changing it back to its default "Administrator" restored the user's ability to use SUDO and GKSU. Everything is working fine again.

Yeah, that confused me, too, when I first started using Linux. The Linux terms for user accounts are a bit different from the Windows ones. "Standard User" in Linux is like the Guest account for Windows. "Administrator" in Linux is like the "Standard User" in Windows. And "Root" in Linux is like "Administrator" in Windows. So, in Linux, you should always be running an administrator account. Standard user accounts are not added to the "sudoers" group, which is why you had that problem.